


Good afternoon, Desert Bluffs!

by LynnLarsh



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, M/M, Non-Consensual Violence, Physical Abuse, Physical Torture, Post Traumatic Stress, emotional torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 11:54:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynnLarsh/pseuds/LynnLarsh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It didn’t take long for Cecil to notice that Carlos had gone missing.  And not long after that for him to start panicking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good afternoon, Desert Bluffs!

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at a Night Vale fanfic, mostly as an attempt to better understand the mystery that is Kevin. Trigger warning for graphic depictions of violence as well as physical and emotional torture. 
> 
> Inspired by the infamous scene, "He hugged me, so I hugged him back."

_When you live in a small and wonderful town like Desert Bluffs, it’s not necessarily surprising to wake up one day and know every single person in it. But this man, listeners, this man with flawless and beautiful, white speckled hair, wasn’t a face I recognized. He was someone new, someone practically glowing with perfection, and I fell in love instantly._

Xxx

He’d been blinded by familiarity. That was the only explanation. Though, Carlos didn’t blame himself for the frantic hope; one minute he’d been walking up to the radio station, the next, ripped from Night Vale entirely and dropped instead into a veritable nightmare of blood and fear and mangled flesh. So he’d bounded on reflex up the stairs into what looked like a distorted, abandoned replica of Night Vale’s station---windows shattered and dirty with gore, walls practically painted with blood---in search of anyone. Someone. So he didn’t blame himself when he caught sight of that familiar head of blonde hair, that beautifully recognizable frame. He’d been too frazzled from the sudden shift in environment, too frightened to truly notice that the man’s smile was a touch too manic. And by the time he finally looked into those eyes, so unlike Cecil’s, so inhuman Carlos could do little more than recoil in shock, it was already too late.

Xxx

It didn’t take long for Cecil to notice that Carlos had gone missing. And not long after that for him to start panicking.

“He was on his way here?” Cecil tried not to scream into the phone, instead just tightening his grip on the receiver. It had taken more time than he would have liked to pick up Carlos’ trail, his third eye itching with the gathered information in a way that was bordering on uncomfortable, overused. “How long ago?” The voice of one of Carlos’ assistants at the lab squeaked out a number from the other end and Cecil felt his blood run cold. “Two hours?!” Cecil threw the phone against the wall, leaning heavily over the recording booth and trying to breathe, all eyes wide and frenzied. Searching.

_Anything can happen in two hours. Absolutely anything._

“I contacted a couple of sources in town,” Dana’s voiced piped up hesitantly from the doorway. Cecil ignored it. As expected, the intern continued, ushered on by his silence. “Most of them haven’t seen him at all today, but one spotted him around an hour and a half ago in front of the station.”

Cecil closed his eyes, ran a hand over his face. _He’d made it here. He’d been right outside. Anything could have happened._ “What else?”

“Just that, when she came back outside ten minutes later, Carlos wasn’t there. She figured he was inside with us.”

“Well he isn’t, is he?!” Cecil snapped, Dana visibly flinching. Though she didn’t shy away, she didn’t say anything more. Eventually Cecil couldn’t take it. Head falling to hang heavy between his shoulders, he let a breath escape like a hiss through his teeth. “I’ll find him.”

“Where would we-?” Dana tried to ask, but Cecil slammed both fists onto the counter, rattling the sound-board and knocking over the microphone, cutting her off with a startled gasp. When he finally looked at her, his eyes were fierce with determination.

“I will find him.”

Dana stayed silent for a moment, matching his gaze, though the concern---and poorly concealed fear---behind hers was obvious and weighted. Finally, she nodded.

“I’ll help however I can.”

Xxx

_Listeners, I can’t even begin to describe the way my heart raced when he saw me. The way his eyes widened in excitement, his deliciously full lips falling open in what could only be described as pure joy. And the way he held his arms out in front of him in greeting? Clearly he was a man as besotted as I was. What had I done to deserve such a wonderful chance encounter?_

Xxx

“Stay back!”

Carlos knew he was brandishing the letter opener like a sword, but it had been the only thing he could find among the gristle and debris of the supposed recording studio; the thing still had bits of what looked like intestine clinging to the silver. But his few attempts at self-defense classes had been too many years ago to count---somewhere in the vicinity of middle school---so this was all he had. He was so far out of his depth he’d nearly convinced himself this was all a dream, that he might wake up if he willed it hard enough, the obsidian eyes fading away with the rest of this terror. But the longer he stood there, waiting for an attack, the more his heart sank with reality.

And then he spoke.

His voice was nothing like Cecil’s, thankfully, lighter and almost giddy. The sound made Carlos even more anxious, his whole body tense and on edge. The letter opener trembled in his grip.

“I don’t know what to say,” The twisted doppelgänger of his Cecil smiled, putting a hand to his face as if to cover a blush. With the other hand, he pointed shyly at the letter opener. “Is that for me?” He asked, biting at his bottom lip.

Carlos didn’t quite know how to respond to that, the man’s words nowhere near matching the severity of the situation. So, just to be safe, Carlos added a rather flustered, “I’ll use it,” and sliced once at the air in front of him, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. Unfortunately, that only made the man grin wider.

“But we’ve only just met,” He giggled, taking a step forward. “My name’s Kev-”

Carlos reacted without thinking, swiping at the man’s face the moment he was within range. He could feel the filed edge of the letter opener drag briefly against skin, adrenaline and force more than any actual sharpness causing the small gash to open along the man’s jaw. A line of red dripped down his neck to pool at his collarbone before he spoke again. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever met somebody so forward!” The man swooned, words punctuated by the precise but almost absentminded movement of a finger through his own blood, smearing it from one side of his collarbone to the other. A streak of red against pale skin like a sick sort of necklace. Then, without warning, the man dove headlong at Carlos, fingers clutching like a vice at his upper arms and knocking them both off their feet.

For a split second, Carlos felt his head make contact with something---the counter, the soundboard, the floor?---and then everything went black.

Xxx

“We have a lead!” Dana practically stumbled over herself as she pushed through the door to the recording studio, notepad clutched firmly in hand. Cecil’s eyes snapped open, his head spinning as he jumped to his feet; his third eye had been scanning all of Night Vale for what felt like hours, coming up with nothing of value, nothing of use. 

Nothing. 

Thankfully, like the good reporter she was trying so hard to be, Dana didn’t wait for him to ask, just flipped to a page in her notebook and began reading. “Another witness was passing the station around that time. Apparently, Carlos never made it inside because, and I quote, “It looked like a rip in time and space, glowing a warm black color, got in his way before he could.”” Dana lowered her notebook and swallowed. “You don’t think…”

But Cecil could never forget, still had nightmares sometimes about those eyes, imagined he could still feel those hands around his throat, his shoes sinking a quarter inch deep into pools of fresh blood. If Carlos was there… Cecil shuddered, heart beating wildly against his chest. He had to get him out of there. 

Swallowing back his own fear, he looked Dana firmly in the eye and said, “We have to find a way back to Desert Bluffs.”

Xxx

_Oh listeners, it was like something out of a dream. To think that I would ever find somebody who returned my feelings so completely so soon! He was a miracle of a man sent to me for all the good I’d done in life, surely. Though even I can’t believe I deserve the love of such a perfect and beautiful man. And just the velvety sound of his caramel voice… Listeners, if you don’t mind my getting a bit personal here, the sweet nothings he whispered to me just set my heart afire._

Xxx

“P-Please stop,” Carlos choked out, struggling not for the first time against the bonds restraining him to the stripped frame of a desk chair. He’d resisted much more vigorously at first, demanded to be let go, but his words meant nothing to Kevin---the introductions had been offhanded and polite as Carlos came to, Kevin already tightening his last restraint---so Carlos had resorted to begging. Not that it made much difference.

Kevin was seated next to him, their fingers intertwined loosely now, for which Carlos was grateful. When Kevin had first reached for his hand, it had resulted in a broken thumb and what felt like fractures on his pinkie and index finger. Kevin lowered his lips to Carlos’ hand as if to kiss away the pain, only to bite down on the second knuckle of his middle finger hard enough to draw blood and crack bone. Carlos cried out, not even bothering to hold back his anguish anymore.

“You’re so beautiful like this,” Kevin licked his lips and ran a hand through Carlos’ hair, stopping to grip tightly at the strands at the nape of his neck. Some of Carlos’ blood lingered on his bottom lip. “How’d I ever get so lucky?”

“You’re sick,” Carlos spat out through clenched teeth. Kevin leaned forward, his own chair squelching wetly as if the cushion was saturated with something. Probably blood. Carlos swallowed, his own terrified reflection staring back at him in the solid black orbs of Kevin’s eyes.

“I love you too,” Kevin cooed, the grip in Carlos’ hair tightening for a moment before he pulled, ripping the strands and what felt like a part of Carlos’ skin from his scalp. This time Carlos’ scream left him as no more than a strangled sob. He couldn’t tell if the wetness dripping down the back of his neck was sweat or blood. He didn’t want to know.

“Just stop this,” Carlos whimpered, his hands twitching weakly against the bonds, reluctantly admitting defeat. “Let me go. Please.”

A look passed Kevin’s face all too briefly, replaced with his wide and threatening grin before Carlos could decipher its meaning. “You’re just confused.” Kevin leaned in close enough for Carlos to feel a hot breath against his face. “You don’t want to go. You want to stay. That’s what you mean. Don’t you?”

He didn’t give Carlos a chance to respond, covering the distance left between them and latching onto the juncture at neck and shoulder, biting off a sizable chunk of Carlos’ skin.

Xxx

It had taken a substantial amount of legwork on both Cecil and Dana’s part, not to mention a favor Cecil wasn’t sure if he owed to Old Woman Josie or the angels---if they even existed---but eventually they’d found a way. Eventually that same black, almost indigo vortex was once again glowing into existence in the recording booth. Cecil knew too much time had passed already since Carlos’ disappearance, knew whatever time he had left was precious, but he still stood for a moment, frozen before the pulsing void.

The gruesome images of his last visit lingered in the back of his mind, taunting him, making him hesitate. But Carlos was there too. Carlos needed him. He’d never forgive himself if… If he were…

_What if I’m too late?_

He’d already grieved the death of his Carlos once. He never wanted to do it again.

He spared a final glance at Dana, the intern nodding once, clutching her notepad to her chest with a white-knuckled grip. He nodded back and grabbed a lead pipe from underneath the recording booth. Just in case.

Swallowing down his own fear, he stepped into the void thinking one thing over and over again. 

_I’m coming. Just hold on, Carlos, I’m coming._

Xxx

_And you’ll never guess what happened next, listeners! Not only did that same white, almost light pink glow from the Sandstorm interrupt Carlos’ and my beautiful evening, but out of it came a friend I never thought I’d see again. The man with hair and build very much like mine, but with the strangest pair of eyes, eyes which latched onto the intimate scene between my Carlos and I in an almost wild eagerness._

Xxx

The agony was all encompassing at this point, throbbing through Carlos’ entire being. His everything hurt. His broken fingers ached while the rest of them felt oddly numb, like the bonds had not only rubbed his wrists raw but also cut off some circulation to the rest of his hand. In the vague, detached back part of his mind, he mourned the loss of his lab coat, bloodied and ripped as it was, sticking to his skin wherever Kevin had cut him deep enough with the letter opener. His throat hurt from screaming, the sounds ripped from him despite his exhaustion. Despite the fact that he’d already given up. 

He was going to die here. He was going to die at the hands of a madman with his beloved Cecil’s face. But not his eyes. Thank god not his eyes. The physical agony of it all was enough. 

Which was why it took him so long to realize it wasn’t Kevin’s voice that was suddenly speaking through the hazy fog of pain. Surely his mind’s last defense to such torture would be to offer him the only voice he truly wanted to hear. But no. It was too muddled, too frantic to be a hallucination.

Carlos forced his eyes open, not quite remembering having closed them, and there he was. His perfect and wonderful and not obsidian-eyed Cecil, calling out his name in frenzied concern.

Carlos opened his mouth to speak, but Kevin’s hand was suddenly around his throat, blood and hair still sticking to his fingers, scratching sickeningly at Carlos’ Adam’s Apple. Whatever words he might have said were forced to a sputtering halt. Cecil’s eyes widened, his whole body shifting into a more defensive position. He had a lead pipe gripped in one hand which trailed the floor, gathering dust and gore as it scratched at the blood splattered linoleum. For the first time, Carlos allowed himself the possibility of hope.

“Isn’t this a pleasant surprise!” Kevin exclaimed. Carlos could hear the smile in his voice, the genuine happiness. It was unnerving. “I never thought I’d get the chance to see you again.”

“Get your hands off of him,” Cecil just growled. As if in retaliation, Kevin’s grip tightened a bit further, each new breath working its way past Carlos’ lips on a wheeze.

“I wish I’d known I’d be having so much company over today,” Kevin went on as if completely oblivious to the rising tension. “I would have made snacks or something. I hope you both don’t think I’m a terrible host.”

“I said,” Cecil practically growled, raising the lead pipe into the air and grasping it with both hands like a baseball bat. “Get your hands. Off of him!” His voiced echoed like a shot around the small recording studio, Kevin’s grip loosening just enough for Carlos to breathe without his throat clicking. When Kevin didn’t respond, Cecil added, much lower, “Or I will kill you.”

“I’m flattered,” Kevin whispered, sounding somewhere between shocked and pleased. Then he chuckled lightly. “But I’m afraid I’m just too head over heels with my precious Carlos, here.” He followed up his declaration of love with a far from gentle caress along the open wound at Carlos’ neck. Carlos tried his best not to shout or thrash against the pain, but he still felt the yell escape past his clenched teeth, and Cecil still cringed at the sound.

“Let him go!” Cecil yelled back, raising the lead pipe over his head and charging forward, Kevin’s hand releasing its grip on Carlos’ neck entirely. Carlos hunched over, gasping in full breaths of air as Cecil barreled into Kevin and knocked them both to the ground.

His head was swimming, blood pounding out a frantic and heavy rhythm in his ears, but even through the overwhelming nausea, the bright flashes of pain whenever he pulled helplessly at his bonds, he could hear Cecil’s voice. It was muffled and distant, but he could hear him shouting, cursing, and he could hear Kevin laughing. Even when the sound of lead on concrete or wood changed for a terrifying moment to lead smacking hard against flesh and bone---a softer, wetter thud with a sickening crack---Kevin never stopped laughing.

All at once, Cecil was in front of him, letting the lead pipe clatter to the ground as he dropped to his knees.

“It’s alright, Carlos. It’s okay now,” Cecil was muttering too quickly for Carlos to fully process. It took him far too long to notice that Cecil was cutting at his bonds with the bloody letter opener. “I’m going to get you out of-” A flurry of motion jerked Cecil away from him, three things happening simultaneously: Kevin tackled Cecil to the floor, both hands firm around his neck as Cecil flailed wildly. Carlos’ chair tipped back, one leg cracking underneath the strain of being unbalanced and knocking Carlos onto his side. And the letter opener slid just within reach, Carlos focusing in on it at once.

It was like his attention was split in two. Carlos’ free hand scrambled shakily for the blade and tore at the bonds while his mind repeated over and over, _Get free, get Cecil, get free, get out, get free_ , the opener occasionally slicing against wrist and ankle in his haste. But all the while, his ears were ringing with the effort to listen to the fight going on to his left, just out of sight. 

_Don’t die, Cecil. Hold on. Don’t die._

Cecil’s voice had dropped into harsh, breathy grunts, and Kevin had exchanged his pleasant laughter for manic proclamations of joy. When the final bond snapped free, Carlos couldn’t stumble to his feet fast enough.

“This is the happiest day of my-” was all Kevin managed before Carlos was burying the letter opener in his neck.

This time, Kevin released his strangling grip slowly, as if too surprised to fully react. Once he did, Cecil wasted no time, pushing Kevin away and bounding to his feet, sucking in deep, shaking breaths as he did so. Carlos’ hands were still trembling, his mind and body racing with adrenaline. Offhandedly, he knew they should be running, that the pain would return soon, and that this might be their once chance of escaping. Just in case his aim had been less than fatal. But even more offhandedly, he knew from the spray that, if he was built like a normal human being, Carlos had hit Kevin’s carotid artery. He’d probably be dead in minutes.

It took Cecil grabbing his hand for him to fall back into the present, Carlos following wordlessly when he pulled him towards a glowing, pink-white vortex. He did, however, spare one last glance at Kevin before disappearing through it completely. Kevin was lying on his side and watching him leave, looking perfectly content if not a bit confused. The letter opener was sticking straight up out of his jugular, blood dripping down his pale neck in steadily flowing rivulets. He smiled.

It was the last thing Carlos saw before the void swallowed around them and spit them out back in Night Vale.

Xxx

“Carlos,” Cecil repeated for the fifth time. Carlos still wasn’t speaking, still wasn’t moving, and with each passing moment, Cecil was getting more and more frightened. 

Carlos had fallen to his knees, eyes distant and glazed, the moment they’d passed through the void and back into their own, bloodless recording studio. From there, he’d gone silent and blank, even as Dana had offered her own concerns and run off to grab the station’s first aid kit.

Not sure what else to do, Cecil began taking stock of Carlos’ injuries, carefully running his fingers over everything that wasn’t openly wounded. He had multiple bruises, three broken fingers, a rather large patch of blood matting the hair at the base of his neck, a gruesome looking bite mark still bleeding up by his shoulder. Cecil’s chest ached more with each new discovery. And there were so many, too many.

_I should have come sooner. I should have found you sooner. I’m so sorry, Carlos._

“I’m so sorry,” Cecil whispered, voice cracking. Careful of the wounds on his neck and shoulder, Cecil lowered his forehead into Carlos’ chest. 

He felt the sound before he heard it, a panicked grunt ripping itself up Carlos’ chest and out of his throat like a strangled cry, raw and pained and wanton. Before he could lift his head up of his own accord, Carlos’ hands were in Cecil’s hair, pulling him away and holding him at arm’s length, fingernails digging into his scalp.

“Carlos!” Cecil gasped, but Carlos just held him there, panicked gaze searching frantically over Cecil’s face. Cecil took a breath, slowly raising his own hands to cover Carlos’, not removing them, just holding them there, anchoring them both. “Carlos. Carlos, are you alright? Please, answer me…” He closed his eyes. “Please just-”

Carlos’ grip tightened in his hair, surprising Cecil’s eyes back open. “Don’t,” Carlos whimpered, eyes still locked on Cecil’s face, though perhaps, hopefully, with a bit more life behind them. Cecil kept himself still, wary of shattering whatever bits of his Carlos were slowly falling back into place.

“Don’t what?” Cecil whispered cautiously.

Carlos started shivering, eyes watering as he began to more completely come to. “Don’t close your eyes,” he mumbled, shaking his head. His grip on Cecil’s hair loosened, fingers unclenching until he was cupping the back of Cecil’s head almost tenderly. “Not yet. Just don’t close your eyes yet, okay? Please.”

“Of course,” Cecil nodded, making sure not to look away as he said it. “Anything, Carlos. Anything you need.” 

“Just for a little while,” Carlos took a breath, trying his best to hold back the tears, but one escaped anyway. “Cecil…”

“I’m here,” Cecil smiled, reaching a hand out to wipe the tear away. “You’re fine now. It’s alright.” He wanted to pull him into a hug, reassure Carlos that everything was okay again, that he would never let anything happen to him again. But he didn’t. He kept that little bit of distance instead, made sure Carlos could see his eyes at all times. If he could, for his perfect and beautiful and fragile Carlos, he would never blink again.

Xxx

_Listeners, I don’t mean to be so personal today, but I just have to say. As I watched the white, almost pink vortex close around my perfect and beautiful Carlos, I had a moment of undeniable clarity. A revelation. Lying there in the steadily growing pool of my own blood, I had never felt more loved._

_Until next time, Desert Bluffs. Until next time._


End file.
